SHARE
COPY LINK
SAAB CASH CRISIS

SAAB

Saab cash boost after property sale

Saab parent company Swedish Automobile has signed an agreement to sell 50.1 percent of the shares in its property arm for 255 million kronor ($40 million), providing much needed cash for the crisis-hit Swedish car maker.

Saab cash boost after property sale

The buyer of the property has been named as Hemfosa Fastigheter, according to a company statement.

The buyer has the right to increase its stake in the property firm, for the duration of thirty days after completing the deal, bringing the possible purchase price up to 300 million kronor.

Saab Automobile will in due course sign a 15-year leasing agreement with Saab Property.

A further six demands were submitted to the Swedish Enforcement Authority overnight regarding outstanding payments owed by the cash-strapped firm.

The demands range from a couple of thousand up to 1.6 million kronor. The number of cases regarding the firm at the Enforcement Authority currently number 74.

“In total this concerns around 70-75 million kronor,” said Fredric Orloff at the Authority.

The largest single demand, around 44 million, is from vehicle components firm IAC.

Swedish Metalworkers’ Union (IF Metall) leaders Stefan Löfven and Veli-Pekka Säikkälä are due to arrive at Saab Automobile in Trollhättan on Tuesday.

“We are going to to have a meeting with the union chapter,” said Lisa Wernstedt at the union.

She was unable to provide any further detailed information over the schedule for the day.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CARS

Former Swedish Saab bosses appear in court

Swedish car maker Saab's former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson and the firm's former head lawyer Kristina Geers have appeared in court in Vänersborg in west Sweden, accused of falsifying financial documents shortly before the company went bankrupt in 2011.

Former Swedish Saab bosses appear in court
Saab's former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson. Photo: Karin Olander/TT
The pair are accused of falsifying the paperwork at the height of the Swedish company's financial difficulties at the start of the decade.
 
A third person – who has not been named in the Swedish media – is accused of assisting them by issuing false invoices adding up to a total of 30 million kronor ($3.55m).
 
According to court documents, the charges relate to the firm's business in Ukraine and the paperwork in question was signed just before former CEO Jan Åke Jonsson resigned.
 
Both Jonsson and Saab's former head lawyer Kristina Geers have admitted signing the papers but denied knowledge of the Ukranian firm implicated in the case.
 
All three suspects deny all the charges against them.
 

Saab's former head lawyer Kristina Geers. Photo:  Björn Larsson Rosvall/TT
 
Saab filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2011, after teetering on the edge of collapse for nearly two years.
 
Chief prosecutor Olof Sahlgren told the court in Vänersborg on Wednesday that the alleged crimes took place in March 2011, when Saab was briefly owned by the Dutch company Spyker Cars.
  
It was eventually bought by National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs), a Chinese-owned company after hundreds of staff lost their jobs.
 
The car maker, which is based in west Sweden, has struggled to resolve serious financial difficulties by attracting new investors since the takeover.
 
In October 2014 it announced it had axed 155 workers, close to a third of its workforce.
 
Since 2000, Saab automobile has had no connection with the defence and aeronautics firm with the same name. It only produces one model today, the electric 9-3 Aero Sedan, mainly targeting the Chinese market.